Page 72: The 5 principles of counting. How I teach mathematics in the EYFS.
Following on from last weeks delve into teaching early phonics, this week it is all about exploring all mathematics. It our our role to expose the children to a clear and progressive curriculum, that builds up from the foundations. As a school, like many, we teach through a mastery approach. There is a plethora of educational research of the success of these methods and from first had experiences of my teaching, I most definitely agree. As a school, we use the White Rose maths scheme and as Nursery, we draw from Master the Curriculum which supports the foundation steps to begin White Rose in Reception. We have daily around 25 minute mathematics sessions which focussing on 2 first. Firstly the 5 principles of counting (the fundamental of all mathematics which we repeated daily) and following by part 2 (White Rose/ Master the Curriculum input activities) which I will focus a future post on how I use this scheme in my teacher.
So, what are the 5 principles of counting?
1. One to one
This is the ability for each item in a set to be counted once and a name given. E.g., putting a pile of counters in a line and counting 1,2,3,4,5.
2. Stable Order
When counting, this is the ability to understand that number words are always assigned in the same order and knowing this cannot change. E.g., counting toys in a tuff tray, one, two, three, every time.
3. Cardinal Principle
This is the ability to know the final number counted represents the total number of a set. E.g., putting a pile of counters in a line and counting 1,2,3,4,5, I have 5.
4. Abstraction
The understadning of the fact we count everything in the same way regardless of factors such as size and shape. E.g., counting different coloured counters.
5. Order Irrelevance
When counting, regardless of where you begin the counting process, this is the ability to of ensuring no matter where you start, all items are counted. E.g., counting flowers in rows in a flower bed.
An extra note:
6. Subitizing
Although not a principles of counting, this is a subconscious but vital mathematical skill. Subitizing is the ability to know how many you have without actually counting them. E.g., rolling a dice and knowing it has landed on 3 or 5 etc without actually counting the circles.
How do I teach these (daily) in my classroom?
It is fundamental to establish the skills and confidence in using these skills daily. This is why I always use this routine to get into this vital skills taught before the 'main mathematics' activity input. I vary the hooks but use the same content structure. I have placed the key principles covered in bold to further emphasis understanding.
- I begin with hooking the children in with an active counting adventure. This involves counting from 1-10 multiple times. We vary from missions to space, picnics in the park and ideas such as a trip to the beach. Children join in counting 1-10 for example climbing up 10 stems before going down a slide. Stable order.
- Next, we move onto number recognition. We use symbols and stories to teach these and then progress to skills such as ordering numbers to form a correct number line with these. Stable order. Number recognition.
- After this, we working on 'counting'. Following a strict script (I will explore this further in a following post), the children are to put a pile of objects into a straight line, use their counting fingers to count every item and state how many they have. One to one counting, cardinal principle, order irreverence, abstraction. This is a vital aspects that we ensure to complete daily as it covers so many vital skills as we change this up in regard to the emphasis needed on individual principle skills.
- The next part of the input focuses on subitizing, We ask children to close their eyes and build up from 1-5 throughout the year counters as they open their eyes, changing amount and pattern of the counters each time. We tell the children to use their brain and their eyes and not to count! Subitizing.
- Finally we finish with a mathematical song. E.g., 1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught a fish alive and 5 little speckled frogs. Stable order.
I hope you have found this post both interesting and helpful. Establishing key principles and proving the children with confidence in the basic principles is the catalyst of successful future and more complex learning.
- Miss Yeoman.
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